When your nail polish bottles get down to just below the halfway mark and you have trouble getting product on the brush, what do you do? Throw them away? Use another bottle to the same extent, then combine the two?

31 Responses to “Advice, please”

I take a polish that has a longer brush like Nail Life Gripper and when that bottle is empty I save the brush, then I use it for the polishes that are below the halfway mark. Or as I do each nail I tilt the bottle and pick it up from the sides

Oh Anne, that was hilarious! I followed the link, expecting them to suggest putting putty IN the bottle (to raise the level of the liquid inside). Creating an semi-sticky base to hold the bottle at an angle is clever! Maybe I should pick up some putty…

I drop a couple of thinners if necessary, and put the polish bottle in hot (not boiling, not lukewarm) water for a bit–makes the liquid move around better, so when I tilt the bottle it’s much easier to reach down and get what’s left. It also works for lip glosses!

I stop using the product (in my case a quick dry topcoat) at the halfway mark and use a new bottle. When that new bottle is half gone I take one of the used halves and pour it into the other for a “new” bottle. If it needs a little bit of thinning I might put a few drops of thinner as well.

i usually just tilt it sideways to dip the brush. also usually by halfway mark it’s probably really gooey/dry from overuse, so i would need to use some thinner anyway, and adding thinner usually bumps it up to higher than the halfway mark, making it easier to get to lol.

i do also have a huge bottle of SV that i just keep filling my halfway bottle with though. but i like some of the solution posted here, including the “use another bottle halfway, then pour in the other half”. i probably need to do this with my Barielle base coats XD

I actually purchased one of those silicone bottle tilting bases when I made a large order from Transdesign. You might be able to find them at Sally’s, too. They work well and don’t slide around on my smooth table.

You can also transfer the contents to an empty mini bottle, or get rid of the contents and use the bottle to franken new shades. I personally wouldn’t dump the Vivid…I’ve been trying to find a bottle myself.

I tilt it and use it as long as I can and then I go and get a new one. Once the new one has some room in it, I pour in what’s left of the old one. This really only happens to me with base coat and top coat, though!

I buy a new bottle of the same thing and pour half of it into the old bottle. I like it when my top coat gets a bit thicker so it keeps it thick and stops it getting over-thick to dilute it with new product.
Then when the new bottle is all used up pouring into the old one I use it for frankens or decants

I’m a bottle tilter too, I tilt the heck out of the little suckers until it’s physically impossible to retrieve more polish and then I combine those small leftovers and franken them! All while cursing companies for not making longer brushes…

I wouldn’t throw it away unless the color was crappy or if it was just so thick, that the polish wasn’t drying properly anymore in between coats.
Usually I drop a few drops of thinner in.. Hmm, I never thought to put in another polish of the same shade. I think I’d begin experimenting and try and modify the shade though (if I didn’t like it that much to begin with)

hey Karla, I actually buy a second bottle and use the second one until about the same mark, then combine. Especially because I really love Seche Vite and it’s just too expensive to only use half way ya kknow… good luck!

i know the problem, my advice is to refill the bottle when the content hits the bottom of the logo printed on the bottle, so when your bottle is 2/3 full ad new product to keep it fresh, the new (refill) bottle will stay fresh and fluid because your polish product will go goopier each time it’s exposed to oxygen (we love high speed drying on the nail but unfortunately it does thesame in the bottle.
good luck refilling!

ps and by the time you used 1/3 you know if you like to product or not so maybe your local salon is kind enough to sell you the salon refill products to last forever;)